Conveyancing solicitors - am I being ripped off?

DG55

timmyt wrote: »

you hve been had is an understatement. you were clearly sport for the office.

your case is THE worst example of being ripped off I have ever seen as a conveyancing solicitor. I will need to quote you for the rest of my career too, sorry, but ouch!
solution - name this outfit, and the terriblel estate agent who allowed you to go to this outfit.

and report them to the local Press for the area, Trading standards and publicise it by doing a blog on The Law Society Gazette -

You must warn people not to use this outfit.....and before anyone says it....they won't have been a solicitor...FACT....My voice alone on this website is clearly not getting through that unless you go with a solicitor practice, Lexcel accredited and avoid national estate agents....ouch!!!

unfair contract terms act....and certianly brining the profession into disrepute...IF....IF....IF a solicitor (but you won't have got one) where you could report the solicitor firm for professional misconduct......

And I assume there is nothing I can do? E.g. what if I were to just not pay them?

timmyt

DG55 wrote: »

And I assume there is nothing I can do? E.g. what if I were to just not pay them?

you have to threaten them...try this letter:

Dear Sirs
I acknowldege receipt of your financial statement, which horrifies me. I have taken a second legal opinion, and I am informed that the following charges represent your Firm's pure profit, and are neither disbursements nor third party exepnses:

Admin Fee £40.00
Acting for Lender £165.68
SDLT Return £85.00
Bankruptcy searches (x2 @ £24.50) £49.00
Checking Buildings Insurance £35.00
Leasehold Transaction Fee £174.00
Arrange execution of Stock Transfer F £25.00
Obtaining /Preparing deed of covenant £100.00
Retention £75.00
Send deeds post completion £15.00

Whether or not you claim I have agreed to them via your Firm's Terms of Business, they were not properly explained to me and I consider them unfair contract terms.

Unless they are removed from my statement I shall have no alternative but to report this to the solicitor complaints service, the local Press, and the Law Society Gazette, all of who I am sure will take a great interest in how you seek to hide what is your Firm's pure profit and all hiden behind the guise of a cheap headline charge. Yet for all the charge, you still only supply junior conveyacers at more than usual solicitor rates.

I await to hear from you with interest.

Yours faithfully

bluu2k

Hi,

Some comments with personal experience from me in blue colour below. Hope this helps

Cheers,

DG55 wrote: »

So I've got to the stage where we're ready to complete next week but have just got the final bill, which is wildly more expensive than the original quote. The estate agents think I should be paying £1100 maximum for conveyancing inclusive of all fees etc. The original quote was about £700 in total.

It is share of freehold.

Here is a breakdown of my fees:

Conveyancing Fee £220.50 ==> about OK on its own
Admin Fee £40.00 ===> what's it? you can ask them for clarification
TT Fee £39.00 ===> I avoided this by making several fast payments from our natwest accounts in a few days (max £10K per account per day
Acting for Lender £165.68 ===> as far as I remember, this fee applies only if you purchase a leasehold property, check with them again
SDLT Return £85.00 ===> some conveyancing companies offer this service free. If yours doesn't budge, just tell them you'll do you yourself. You will receive the form from the Inland Revenue, and it's pretty simple and easy to complete.
Land registry Pre-completion Searches (x2 @ £4) £8.00
Bankruptcy searches (x2 @ £24.50) £49.00
Checking Buildings Insurance £35.00 ===> what's it?
Leasehold Transaction Fee £174.00 ===> You said you purchase a share freehold? How come they charge you with this? I'm not saying they're cheating, but just not sure if a share freehold could be classed similar to leasehold and thus charged as such?
Arrange execution of Stock Transfer Form £25.00 ===> what's it?
Obtaining /Preparing deed of covenant £100.00 ===> what's it? isn't it already part of conveyancing service above?
Retention £75.00 ===> what's it?
Send deeds post completion £15.00 ===> why? now everything is electronically documented and all they need to do is just emailing you with the deed. In fact the IR no longer issues hard copy of the deed anymore (or at least what was what my conveyancing firm told us more than a year ago.
Full search pack £295.00 ===> what's it? can they provide you with break-down fees for each type of search?

Total (Incl. Vat@ 20%) £1591.41

PLUS £280 for land registry fee.

Am I being hugely ripped off, can anyone compare with their experiences?

Many thanks.

Burridge60

Share of freehold constituted by a share in a limited company! Hence the stock transfer.

You really do need to get a relationship going with a good local conveyancing solicitor and on whom you can rely for honest advice.

Timmyt exaggerates but the fee for a sale is circa £750 (more for leasehold) with your average high street lawyer add up the bits and its about that then add the searches pack and the Bankruptcy searches (seem high but maybe they go the extra mile or 100). The Buildings Insurance is a bit steep as most lawyers say to you it is your responsibility but in this case it is a block policy provided by your Freeholder (a limited Company of which you own a share) so your lawyer may have had to do this for the lender.

Hopefully you will get a copy of your deeds and land registry entries and is a nice touch if you like that sort of thing from your solicitor.

Ring them Monday and ask why it differs so much from the figure you were given that made you choose them.

G_M

Have you Completed? Normally the legal fees are set out as part of the Completion Statement.
So they tell you that to Complete will cost £X which is the purchase price less the amount the mortgage lender is providing plus the legal costs etc .

In other words, if you don't pay, they won't Complete. Blackmail? Maybe.....

If you HAVE Completed, and now own the property, you are in a stronger position, but they'll sue you, and probobly win, because as I said, you signed up to their T&Cs didn't you?.......

Go back and read their T&Cs carefully and you'll find all those charges tucked neatly away in the small print.

Burridge60

Thread is full of rubbish posted by axe grinders and penny pinchers.

Wait for a Solicitor to come passing by!

timmyt

bluu2k wrote: »

Hi,

Some comments with personal experience from me in blue colour below. Hope this helps

Cheers,

The £39 fee is the lawyers in sending the money to the seller.

You can't complete the SDLT as it is a requirement of the buyers lender that the lawyer does it. sorry.

Deeds are more than the land registry copy...don't let your lawyer fool you otherwise, they will have searches, planning permissions, guarantees, land registry copy deed documents...there is a big bundle still - and getting copies when you sell are costly...so make sure you conveyancer stores them or sends the big bundle to you and you keep them very safe.

timmyt

Burridge60 wrote: »

Thread is full of rubbish posted by axe grinders and penny pinchers.

Wait for a Solicitor to come passing by!

there are a couple of us here already thanks. who do you recommend in mortgage advising...volume outfits who pay referrals and who take advantage of clients like the above?

Burridge60

I think if you are half the person I assume you to be you would accept that my ballpark figures gave nothing to allow an individual to be misled as to the "true" cost of their legal encounter with the profession.

This is a leasehold purchase with a share owned by the buyer of a limited company freeholder and management company. Would I be wrong in assuming that the legal requirements would be somewhat more for such a purchase than a freehold open hand transaction. Correct me if i am wrong.

timmyt

Burridge60 wrote: »

I think if you are half the person I assume you to be you would accept that my ballpark figures gave nothing to allow an individual to be misled as to the "true" cost of their legal encounter with the profession.

This is a leasehold purchase with a share owned by the buyer of a limited company freeholder and management company. Would I be wrong in assuming that the legal requirements would be somewhat more for such a purchase than a freehold open hand transaction. Correct me if i am wrong.

the replies to date are lost on you, thanks for reading anyway, off you go now